


Psalm 82:3-5

by iaj



Category: The Handmaid's Tale (TV)
Genre: Deviates From Canon, Gen, Missing Scene
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-06-16
Updated: 2018-06-16
Packaged: 2019-05-24 02:27:24
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,069
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14945877
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/iaj/pseuds/iaj
Summary: A small canon-divergent blip. What if Lucas hadn't attacked the Commander, and tried to get in contact with Serena instead? Occurs immediately prior to the Canadian bar scene in 2x09.





	Psalm 82:3-5

Serena was absorbed in staring out the high-rise window beside her. The absolute normality of the street scene was soothing, but also alien.  
  
“May I sit with you?”  
  
The silence broken, Serena turned to the source of the voice. Serena looked up at the man; he was unfamiliar, and somewhat scruffy, with an American accent. He had on a guest tag for the embassy. Everyone here was screened for weapons, and she was in the corner of a spacious but mostly filled bar. So probably press, instead of someone seeking revenge.  
  
“I’m not talking to the press, I’m afraid,” she said politely.  
  
“I’m not the press,” he said. “My name is Lucas Bankole. May I talk with you for a moment?”  
  
Then he sat, not waiting for her reply. Even here, men overrule women’s wishes, Serena thought to herself. Underneath the veneer of freedom there was violence and ugliness here, she reminded herself.  
  
But Mr Bankole sat politely, placing his tall glass of something dark and carbonated beside him. “I wanted to speak with you about my wife,” he said.  
  
“I’m afraid missing persons must be handled through the embassies, Mr Bankole,” Serena Joy said firmly.  
  
“No, not this one. You know her personally,” he said. Then he pulled out a photo from his pocket - and Serena’s heart froze.  
  
There was the same man, younger by a few years, with Offred beside him. Between them was Hannah - Serena Joy knew her, from the one time she had sought her out to threaten Offred. All on a worn glossy photo print from before. The edges were soft and turned in - it lived in this man’s pocket, or was frequently touched. The fingerprints on it left small smears on the image, but that woman was Offred, and that was the daughter.  
  
She couldn’t speak, or say anything. Her heart was a cold lump in her throat.  
  
“Your husband,” Mr Bankole said, his voice cracking slightly, “rapes my wife.”  
  
Serena Joy took a sharp breath in and a sip of her wine. “I am not here to discuss poorly-informed rumours of-“  
  
“Don’t lie to me,” Mr Bankole snapped, then took a slow breath and made sure to speak quietly. “Please.” The bar around them was so casual, so ignorant of this quiet conversation. This dagger in Serena Joy’s heart.  
  
“What do you want from me?” Serena Joy asked in a hiss.  
  
Mr Bankole sat back, and took a sip of his drink. “I don’t know,” he admitted, after he swallowed a fizzy sip. “I guess I wished that you’d realise that people love June. She’s a human being. We want her home. Please.”  
  
Serena Joy took a slow breath, and said, “I don’t think you’re meant to be talking to me, Mr Bankole.”  
  
“Is that all you have to say for yourself?” Lucas asked softly but forcefully, sounding sad and angry and frustrated all at once. “When you meet the husband of the woman you are keeping prisoner, having raped, forcing to bear children… you can’t even admit it?”  
  
Serena stood up, and turned to the balcony door further along the glass wall. The balcony contained beyond the balcony door was incredibly bare - a glassy metal fence, and glass windows into the bar. Everything was visible, but there was nowhere to hide recording equipment. And the cold wind would make anything she said inaudible to anything hidden in his jacket.  
  
She was aggravated, but not surprised, when he followed her. She pushed open the glass door with one hand, holding her wine in the other. Even through her blue coat and gloves, the wind was uncomfortably cold, almost hurting before it numbed her cheeks and nose. The door closed with a soft suction noise, and then opened again as Bankole followed her.  
  
She stood near the end of the balcony, away from the door.  
  
Lucas was slightly louder, now that they were outside, in the loud wind. “You’re a coward,” he spat, although he kept his posture calm and relaxed. He didn’t want to be removed by security, Serena realised. Perhaps he wasn’t meant to be here.  
  
“I have nothing to do with the Handmaid of the house,” Serena said, “and I won’t be interrogated about this. I will call security if you continue harassing me.”  
  
And then, to her abject horror, tears spilled down from under Lucas’ glasses. “How can you do it? How can you sit by as your husband rapes another woman? Again, and again?” he asked, voice truly cracking now - still angry, but also overwhelmingly sad. “How can you let that happen to someone, even a stranger?”  
  
Serena took a slow breath. “We must all… do things we don’t like. For the good of our future.”  
  
Lucas closed his eyes for a moment, and steeled himself. “I was right,” he said, “you are a coward.”  
  
Serena took a long sip from her wine. She just wanted this man to go away.  
  
“You know, I respected your early books,” Lucas said. “You seemed like you had strong opinions on supporting stay-at-home mothers. Nothing too bad. How did it turn into this?”  
  
Serena turned around and glared at him. “Mr Bankole, remove yourself before I have you removed by security,” she said coldly.  
  
Lucas turned and left without another word. Serena stayed on the balcony, tracking him through the glass until he exited the bar.  
  
She took another sip of her drink, and looked out on the Canadian streets. Women walked by as often as men, dressed in warm coats and pants for winter. Many of them, faces and hands lit up by the glow of a phone, covered in text and numbers.  
  
The pictograph schedule burned in her dress pocket against her hip.  
  
Serena walked carefully down the icy balcony to the door, and pulled it open for a warm rush of air. She stepped in, and walked to the bar. “I’ll have a glass of water, please,” she said, when the barman turned with a friendly gaze.  
  
As he poured it, a much neater man stepped in beside her, cigarette packet in hand.

\--

 

Psalm 82:3-5 (CEB):

3    Give justice to the lowly and the orphan;  
maintain the right of the poor and the destitute!

4    Rescue the lowly and the needy.  
Deliver them from the power of the wicked!

5    They don't know; they don't understand;  
     They wander around in the dark. All the earth's foundation's shake.

 

\--

**Author's Note:**

> I couldn't imagine a way that Serena would ever have a real discussion with Luke. But I think the tension is very interesting - between her belief in the righteousness of Gilead, with her anger at her own position in life, and her horror from her (limited) view of what actually happens in Gilead.
> 
> For all intents and purposes, this is the same as canon except she has a glass of water for her meeting with that dude now :) Nick still saw Luke in the crowd with the banner.


End file.
